THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
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STATUTEMILES
42
LONGITUDE
EAST
43
OF GREENWICH
Drawn by Newman Bumstead
A MAP OF FRENCH SOMALILAND
Of the 5,290,260 square miles of territory held
by France in Africa, French Somaliland has an
area of about 5,800 square miles and a population
of 86,ooo. Its position at the entrance to the Red
Sea gives it strategic importance.
Cartridges, I was told, were reserved for
more important uses.
DANAKIL SUGGEST DESCENT FROM
DWELLERS OF ANCIENT EGYPT
Lean almost to the point of emaciation
(and no wonder), were the Danakil from
the bush, whom I first saw striding through
the streets of Obock, a curved knife
buckled at the waist, carrying staff and
guerba-the leather water jar-and wear
ing sandals of the bush, thick leather soles
curved up at the side and tip and held in
place by a thong over the second toe and
another about the ankle. Tall fellows,
splendidly built, with finely cut features
and long, curling hair.
"Black Semites"
they have been called; and surely the gen
eral appearance of the Danakil, in whom
little if anything recalls the negroid, might
well indicate a close relationship with the
dwellers of ancient Egypt. In their man
ner, a proud reserve and a dignity that
made me think of the "noble redskins" of
America as pictured by James Fenimore
Cooper (see, also, pages 369, 383).
As we left the dugout in which we had
paddled ashore, a tall Dankali, white
bearded, draped in a spotless chamma, and
wearing about his neck a string of Mo
hammedan prayer beads, strode toward
us across the sand. He offered his hand
first to the master of the Altair and after
ward to our crew of three, who kissed it
with every appearance of respect.
"Sheik Issa, one of the great men of the
coast," Abd el Hai told me. We were to
meet him again later (see pages 385-6).
As in Djibouti, at that time rigorously
quarantined, the black smallpox was rav
aging Obock. Daily it counted new cases,
though no one seemed particularly per
turbed.
"If Allah wills you to die, you
will die. Inshallah!" seemed to be the
general attitude. When anyone came down
with the disease, he was hustled off to one
of a group of huts half a mile distant from
the town and left there to die or recover,
as Allah had intended.
An old woman supplied the sufferers
with food and gave them proper (! ) care,
which consisted in scraping their sores with
a piece of glass, which the aged nurse
afterward wiped on a rag-with appro
priate prayers-and threw into the sea.
All day long the dugout traveled back
and forth from the beach, carrying pro
visions for the Altair-sugar,rice, coffee,
and dates; dourah for the crew; and one
precious item, a case of leeks, our only
green vegetable, brought down from the
Ethiopian plateau, carefully bedded in
damp sand. For meat, we would rely on
fisherman's luck and our five rifles. The
latter, I was assured, were destined solely
for game-shooting. We would have no
other use for them, not on the Dankali
coast at least; though if we pushed our
cruise as far as Arabia, they might come
inhandy . ..
A HENNA MANICURE FOR TOE AND FINGER
NAILS
By evening all was ready. There re
mained only one errand, and that concerned
myself. Oudini, the Dankali caretaker of
the house at Obock, after a mysterious
conversation with the master of the Altair.
signified with gestures and grins that I
was to accompany him.
We crossed the town, following the
main street, past open-air cafes and dark
little shops that sold spices, dourah, and
tobacco. Old women squatted on the sand
364